Tom arcaro's Blog (48)

I listened to President Obama's inauguration speech with interest today because I believe myself to be a responsible American citizen. How he frames his next term is important to me and all citizens of the United States and, indeed, to everyone around the world. But I also listened to his speech to see how often and in what ways he would…

One of the very first questions in the survey deals with morality: ”How do you view the morality of religious believers as compared to the morality of atheists?” To date, there have been over 7600 respondents to the survey and over 3300 have added comments after selecting their…

Though it was down for about 36 hours (!), the blog I am using to follow up on the "Better understanding the world of atheists" survey is now back in action. I have been a bit surprised -in a very positive way- how many people are visiting and interacting with the site. Several of the "mimi polls" that I have added to the site have generated quite a few responses. I encourage anyone -particularly those of you who took the time to critique the questions on the main survey (thank you!)- to…

We could use a world with more reason

Here in the US we are yet again reeling from another mass killing, this time in an elementary school. As I click around on Facebook, Twitter and on various blogs I find a wide array of responses to the tragedy in Connecticut, some more resonant with my feelings than others.

How can the atheist movement (to the extent there is one) be more gender inclusive in terms of its public face and its organizational leadership?

As you might have noticed (on the A/N main page or elsewhere), Brother Richard and I have teamed up once again to do a survey of atheists around the world.

Please go to www.servingatheists.org for more information about the survey and to look at some mini "polls" I have added to that site. I will be updating regularly about the survey in the next couple months, so stay tuned.

Prelude to a Major Surveyby Dr. Tom Arcaro & Emily WappesIt is clear to many members of the atheist internet blogosphere that there is a noticeable gender disparity among participants in atheist activities (fora, blogs, comments, readership) online. Two quick examples will illustrate. As of 6 May 2011 only 27% of Atheist Nexus (A|N) membership is…

Hey folks. Nothing major from this end, but I am working with a student on more writing and research on atheism and atheists -and the public perceptions of same, and I will start posting again some of our musings.

Updates? My course on the sociology of atheism did not get enough students enrolled last summer, so I had to shelve it. I was the moderator on a panel on the media treatment of atheism held on our campus earlier this month, and the headline panelist was none…

At my school we have a nice event once each semester for students who are (or have recently) turned 21. I was asked to give the blessing by our campus director of the center for religious and spiritual life. He knows I am an atheist, and wanted that element of diversity in this event. I was a bit nervous when the time came close, and almost wimped out. I am glad I didn't, and was congratulated by a couple colleagues afterwards. Here is the text of my "blessing:"…

Atheists' rights in eyes of Christians?…

Every year since 1994 whenever I have taught Intro to Sociology I have administered a 15 item opinion survey. I have used this exercise primarily to talk about methodology, but also to explore trends in American popular opinion. In all years previous, three of the questions asked were "All factors being equal, I would feel comfortable voting for a [female, African-American, gay person] for President." This year I added "atheist" to this series of questions. The results of…

I scanned through Ray Comfort's Introduction to the special 150th Anniversary Edition of "The Origin of Species" last night and was not very surprised by what I found: simple, dumbed down prose and simpler argumentation. I will quote and comment on one short -but important- statement.

In a section labelled "Darwinism and Atheism" Comfort begins, "It's rare to find an atheist who doesn't embrace Darwinism with open arms. Many believe that with creation adequately… Continue

I am working with a student right now in my Sociology Senior Seminar on a topic very much related to my own research on atheists. Here is the data from one question (so far) answered by 27 students. I am interested -though not surprised- by the high percentage of "No religions". The survey will stay live until next Friday and we'll have more detailed data. To put this in context, Elon University is a 5000+ liberal arts school in North Carolina.…

The fall is quickly upon us, and I have fallen behind on huge list of things I wanted to accomplish. But that is my MO, and I have learned to live with it. But I have made some progress on a couple items...

First, I am thrilled to begin work constructing a syllabus for a course that I will offer to Elon University students -online- this coming summer. I have been teaching an online course on the Global Impact of HIV/AIDS for the past half decade, and so I have good… Continue

That atheists in the US sense a more extreme degree of stigma as compared many other regions of the world is a fact I can support with my data:

As is the case in any research, the "what" question is much more easy to answer than the "why" question. My goal in this post is to think through some possible explanations for the wide disparity between the US and other "Western" regions of the world, particularly Europe.

Just a short note just now to say the presentation this AM went well. In the immediate aftermath I have had several colleagues say that they were non-believers as well, with one in particular saying that she and her husband quite going to church after their religious parents died, and had only gone to appease them in the first place: classic "social believers."